The Two Kings (Afterlife Saga) (46 page)

The mattress
too
was in one piece
no longer
as it had clearly been ripped apart. There were no windows in this ro
om so the only light came from
office type strip lighting that looked more out of place than me in Afterlife! It flick
er
ed and I could hear a faint buzzing as it tried to find the power to stay illuminated. This was by far the strangest room I had been in because
,
quite simply
,
it was the one most unlikely to have been here. It felt so out of place, like driving in the de
sert and then finding Las Vegas.

I found a door uncovered by a ripped tapestry and prayed that it was unlocked. I must have only been in there for minutes but I had wasted enough time as it was, so I made my sore knees move into a greater action and ran to the exit.
Thankfully the door was unlocked but once I was inside I found myself w
ishing that maybe it hadn’t
. For I was back in the prison!

It only took me a few seconds to realise it wa
sn’t the same one
the girl had been held captive in. This one looked more serious as the c
ells resembled
one man torture
devices. The
y
were caskets
lined
up
against the wall
like stone tombs and all that could be seen wa
s a thin rectangle for
their
eyes to see through.

I was glad to find that no eyes could be seen looking back at me but my blood ran cold as whispers started to come from behind the metal coffins. I couldn’t make out any words as it was all being said in another language. I moved to avoid them
, giving them a wide be
rth as I made my way past. I wa
s trying desperately not to lose
it but I could feel myself fading fast. All I wanted to do was hide away in a corner somewhere and cry myself into a sticky mess. This was most
definitely
my limit and I was so close to cracking
,
that I needed a minute to calm my mind and focus on getting to Draven. He was the only reason I was still moving and I knew if I had to crawl my way out of this hell, that for him I would keep going.

The wet stone walls made the air smell damp but I was thankful that this room was at least cooler than the rest. My hair had started to cling to my neck, which was irritating my skin,
making me itch.

“ARRRH!” I screamed out
at the sound of my name being whispered from around the corner. The room was in a sort of L shape with five large pillars running down the middle. The section I was in only had the small metal coffins along one wall but from what I was about to find out
,
that wasn’t all this room had in store for me.

I bravely made my way around the wall keeping as far away from the one man prisons but as soon as I started to move I realised they weren’t empty. I shuddered back another cry as each thi
n rectangle now produced two orange
glows and
when they started to blink
,
made me react to be
ing
watched. My hands flew to my mouth to keep my voice captive an
d as a result I bit down into the
skin on my hand to restrain it further. I
didn’t take my eyes off theirs
for a second, afraid that if I did, I would pay dearly for it. They moved with my body, following me as I went slowly out of sight.

Once around the corner it opened up into a bigger part of the room and this looked almost identical to the other prison, the one where I first saw the girl.

There was however one startling difference.
One wall, like the other, held heavy doors that lead into the separate cells. But on the opposite side was something I had never seen before and it looked as though made from the stuff nightmares were created from. All along the wall seemed to be alive with tortured s
ouls trapped and begging to be s
et free. It almost looked like a giant womb spread over hundred
s of people trying to claw their
way out. Like a thick skin stretched out to near breaking point.

I stood motionless in the middle of two evils
,
waiting for the next move to come to me. I wondered if this is what Mose
s felt like when he parted the Red S
ea, knowing that any moment either side of death could come crashing down on him and all that followed. I knew this was a completely illogical thing to be thinking and for one thing he had the Gods on his side! I knew perfectly well what I had on my side, both my sides for that matter and I doubted very much that
they wanted to give me a big pat on the back and send me in the right direction!

I knew I had to move a
s I could now hear the voices from
the T
emple coming closer behind and
I knew it wouldn’t be long until
they found me. What was worse? Talk about stuck between a rock and a hard
place, this was more like tight
roping
over a live volcano or going to hell for a holiday!

I started to giggle nervously and I think t
his was mainly down to the fact
that I was slowly losing it and th
ough
it
was
better to giggle than to cry and sob like a baby
I couldn’t stop either
. I counted three pillars and knew that if I was going to do this then I would have to do it one pillar at a time. I focused on the first pillar and started to move my feet.

The problem I faced was that the wall of souls started to respond even more by my movement. Hands tried to reach out and grab me. Faces would push even harder through the skin until near features could be made out. Teeth snapped at me and looked as t
hough they would soon bite their way through. As a result
,
I had a reaction of my own and moved further away,
only nearer
to the other wall. The one with all the cells!

They had barred windows that were lower than the ones in the other prison. Earlier to see into the girl’s cell I had to pull myself up
,
but these you could easily see inside. This was a bad thing….a very bad thing!
The first cell I passed I could see a small man in the far corner just under his window. He was bent on his knees scratching away at the floor like someone possessed. He only had trousers on allowing the gruelling marks to be seen on his back.

As he
arched over
,
it made the metal pins that stuck out from his spin
e stand out even more. There were
two
, one either side of
each spine bone and it looked as though he had been stapled from the inside out. His hair was black and matted into clumps that hung down like dead rats.

The moon started to come out from behind a cloud and it cast first a shadow around the room before lighting it up. I gasped as I read the words that had been plastered around every available wall space. The words “Come play wi
th me” w
ere written in blood that
had seeped from beneath
his
broken finger nail
s. I swallowed back my disgust
in the form of bile when his face turned slowly to look at me.

His face looked withered with red cracks
in his pale skin but it was when he waved at me that it all became too much for a weak stomach that had been pushed to its limit. As soon as my eyes caught sight of the protruding bloody bones that were what was lef
t of his fingers I threw up out
side his cell. He merely shrugged his shoulders before returning his pointed finger bones to scratch away at the only space left untouched which was soon to be completed with his blood
y
ink. I had to steady myself on the pillar as I tried not to panic anymore. I concentrated on my breathing until it so
unded somewhat semi-
normal, before carrying on to the next pillar.

As I approached I knew there was something better behind the next door as a feeling of utter calm and
a
warm tingle under my skin told me so.
At least it made the tears cease to fall…well at least for the minute anyway!
A bright light got stronger as I came closer. When inside the cell was visible I had to
blink a few times before my eyesight grew accustomed to the br
ight room
as
opposed to the dark and dingy ones I had been in for the last ten minutes.
In
side there was an Angel sat on the top of what reminded me
of a white step
ladder.
The room was painted white but
was pealing away to reveal a gre
y
stone wall underneath.

There were
also strange white balls of different sizes around the floor that kept moving round the ladder.
He kept his head
down and his shoulders where sl
umped forward
as if
he had given up. He was wearing only white trousers that looked as though they were made from paper but the strangest thi
ng was his small white wings which
came from his shoulder blades. The ends were tipped with a yellowish colour and the tops brushed against the
wall. I now realised that, because of
my fear
,
I had lost my barrier to keep the imag
es of Angels and Demons in their
true form out.

This must have only h
appened since entering this area
as back in the Temple they just all looked like crazy humans
,
which they clearly weren’t!

“You shouldn’t be here
!
” A soft voice said
,
and for the first time since being down this hell hole, I actually felt comforted.

“I know…. I’m lost
.
” I stammered out.

“They’re
looking for you
.
” Wow, he sure was great for pointing out the obvious
,
ne
xt he was going to tell me “You’re
also a blond girl that just
puked up because you just met Mr bloody bone fingers
!”

“I know! Is there was a way out of here?”

“You won’t leave, not when he wants you
.
” Ok
,
this guy had lost his appeal very quickly. The comfort thing had last
ed
about
all of
thirty seconds.

“Umm thanks
.
” I said sarcastically just as I was about to move along but then his voice chan
ged into a deep scratching, as if
he was suffering with a throat infection.

“Don’t let him get you or Draven will lose, Chosen One!” At the very mention of his name I flung myself against the door and shook the bars.

“Tell me, what have they done to Draven? Where is he? Is he alright?” I hurried out my questions like my mouth was on fire.
But he just turned his body to face the other way and ignored me.

“Talk to me!” I shouted but he just raised his finger to his lips and
said
,

“Ssshh, they will hear you
.
” And nothing more. I could feel another mental piece of string snap and
I knew I would soon lose it al
together. I nearly ran to the other pillar as now the only thing in my mind was finding Draven!

The next door revealed a black room with only a small
window for light which was
the size of a cereal box. This had bars
, crossing
over casting diamond shapes over the room. Down under it was a black African woman sat with her feet crossed as though she was meditating. She was a
lso clearly a demon as there were
two huge
twisted
horns coming from the side of her head just above the ears.

She was naked and had a full body with lots of curves
and a pair of huge breasts,
but I couldn’t make out any other features as she was so dark and had her eyes closed. The horns mirrored alon
g the floor stretching out their
own terrorising shadows.

I was about to back away when out of the darkness I saw two white eyes without pupils. They stared straight at me and
the whites of her teeth appeared
.
She then unfolded her arms and placed the palms on the floor outstretched in front of her. I watched in horror as the
shadows took on a life of their
own and came out towards me. The
y
moved like snakes along the broken tiled floor and made their way up the door
,
coming closer still. I kept backing up but even when I could no longer see inside I could still see the shadows reach up and out of the cell.